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Snake Pass, and how a bad home menu icon drags down my enjoyment of a game

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zoukka

Member
But hopefully they listen to feedback and want to improve their product.

Well context is everything, this thread is just a small sample size of their user base. This kinda reminds me of my work when we design new icons/logos for our games and the small minority of our fans complain, some developers kinda panic at first since it seems like nobody likes the design, but in the end the metrics show that the new icon works better (higher clickthrough rates) and you just have to live with the feedback.
 

petran79

Banned
The games icon doesn't bother me as much as the low resolution of the game. My partner downloaded the game yesterday and was surprised how bad it looked. I am enjoying the gameplay but snake pass looks like a low resolution Ios game.

On PC it looks gorgeous but surprisingly it is very demanding. Α GTX1080 is required to play the game in Ultrawide screen at 60fps. Probably bad optimization by Sumo

 

Neiteio

Member
This thread

6cd5b48646f903b66d2e6d10e73bc4ef6f74b38b550fbaf724b9f9e821f0da8b.jpg
I know, I don't know why Sumo would change a perfectly good icon to the current abomination, either!

zoukka said:
Well context is everything, this thread is just a small sample size of their user base. This kinda reminds me of my work when we design new icons/logos for our games and the small minority of our fans complain, some developers kinda panic at first since it seems like nobody likes the design, but in the end the metrics show that the new icon works better (higher clickthrough rates) and you just have to live with the feedback.
This icon only shows up once you buy the game, though. The people who clicked through, clicked through on the old icon.
 

daxy

Member
I'm curious, does Steam have any icons without the titles in it? I wonder if Valve has any guidelines in that respect.

Don't see any in my library, but there probably is a case somewhere. Either way, in Steam you can choose not to view the icons or even change the icon.
 

inky

Member
This thread is funny, but yeah, it looks like it came out of the Google Play store.

But I mean, Talking Tom is raking in the billions so there's definitely something to those cheap looking icons in the mobile market.
 
On PC it looks gorgeous but surprisingly it is very demanding. Α GTX1080 is required to play the game in Ultrawide screen at 60fps. Probably bad optimization by Sumo


It's sub 720p undocked and looks pretty bad. I'm on vacation so I haven't tried it docked. The games fun though its just disappointing how low resolution it is. I still think it was worth the 12$ but man is it ugly undocked.
 

Drewboy64

Member
It'd be cool if they let you choose among a set of icons or something. I noticed Mr. Shifty's icon changed after a recent update
 

Neiteio

Member
It's a thread that isn't for us.

I don't understand why anyone would be bothered by an icon, or a logo or a cover art. But clearly people are.
It's a piece of entertainment. Different people will be affected differently.

I don't understand the appeal of Japanese VA with English subs instead of an English dub, but I don't criticize people who feel differently.

Bottom line here, is people seem to either hate the change, or not care. So why not change it back for the people who -do- care?
 

Recall

Member
It's a piece of entertainment. Different people will be affected differently.

I don't understand the appeal of Japanese VA with English subs instead of an English dub, but I don't criticize people who feel differently.

Bottom line here, is people seem to either hate it, or not care. So why not change it back for the people who -do- care?
I did not criticise.
 

wouwie

Member
Luckily i played it with the old icon so it is still my GOTY. I can't imagine how it must feel to play the game with the new icon... :)
 

Kyuur

Member
I think the new one looks great. The devs might've thought having the title there was redundant due to the UI title. It unfortunately looks a little strange because the rest of the games have their titles. It would probably look better if none of them did.
 
I'm with you OP. There are a lot of ugly icons out there, even for good games, and something that is constantly just sitting there whenever you turn on your system should be addressed.

Although, while an improvement, the original icon doesn't fix much; it's still the same ugly character with that dumb look on his face.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
That's a very ugly logo. Also it breaks the rest of the icons that seem to show a wider shot with the stylized title on it.
 
Tumbleseed did this too, but they went in the opposite direction. It was, very briefly, an image of a stylized eye. Then it became the game's logo.
I71c9sr.png
 

DJ88

Member
It's a piece of entertainment. Different people will be affected differently.

I don't understand the appeal of Japanese VA with English subs instead of an English dub, but I don't criticize people who feel differently.

Bottom line here, is people seem to either hate the change, or not care. So why not change it back for the people who -do- care?

Something like a VA actually has an effect on the playing of the game.

The icon has absolutely zero.

Go ahead, hate the icon and beg for them to change it back all you want.

Saying it affects your enjoyment of the game though? Sorry, that's objectively crazy.
 

Wikzo

Member
When I received the update, I thought the same: "Didn't the icon use to look better?" Not a big deal to me (especially since I 100%'d it a few months ago), but nonetheless a strange change.
 
Man, the pic with all the other icons sure makes it stick like a sore thumb. I don't own a Switch or Snake Pass yet (though I'm almost certainly getting both at some point), but I just contacted them at Info@Sumo-Digital.com about this thread. Hopefully they'll do something about it.

As a deeply negative person depressed by all things, even such a soft-negative thread from Neiteio is enough to remind me of my humanity and make me feel sadness again (as opposed to nothing). We must protect your smile, Neiteio.

Damn. As a person prone to depression myself, now I want to protect your smile. :/
 

brad-t

Member
Something like a VA actually has an effect on the playing of the game.

The icon has absolutely zero.

Go ahead, hate the icon and beg for them to change it back all you want.

Saying it affects your enjoyment of the game though? Sorry, that's objectively crazy.

It doesn't affect enjoyment of the game. It affects enjoyment of the system and OS itself. So many of the posts in this thread boil down to "design doesn't matter to me so I don't get why it matters to others."
 

jstripes

Banned
This thread is funny, but yeah, it looks like it came out of the Google Play store.

But I mean, Talking Tom is raking in the billions so there's definitely something to those cheap looking icons in the mobile market.

They're fixing the icon. Now the snake's gonna be screaming.

yGChKsF.png
 
I have to disagree. The original icon looked like cheap, tacky, mobile shovelware.

The new one isn't anything amazing, but I feel like it's an improvement. It features Noodle's goofy smile more so that's a step up.
 

Neiteio

Member
Something like a VA actually has an effect on the playing of the game.

The icon has absolutely zero.

Go ahead, hate the icon and beg for them to change it back all you want.

Saying it affects your enjoyment of the game though? Sorry, that's objectively crazy.
Ugly things affect my enjoyment of using the Switch system. That's fact! :)

Also: The icon they had before was perfectly fine. Why change it?
 

DJ88

Member
It doesn't affect enjoyment of the game. It affects enjoyment of the system and OS itself. So many of the posts in this thread boil down to "design doesn't matter to me so I don't get why it matters to others."

I 100% understand how design matters and affects the system and OS.

But the thread title is literally "how a bad home menu icon drags down my enjoyment of a game".

And then you have posts like these:

I understand that, but when you're just looking through your library for something to play, a simple look at a fun looking icon is enticing to play that game more than another when you're actively looking for something without a certain game in mind.

If you look at the Mario Kart icon and Snake Pass icon, which one seems more fun? Mario Kart, clearly, so if I wasn't sure about what game to play, I'd pick Mario Kart.

I'm basically saying when you're looking for a game to play, and not really thinking about details, the first thing you see is an influence. lol
 

bumpkin

Member
Saying it ruins the game is hyperbole but I do agree that the original icon was better. I feel like not having the title on it is some kind of bad UX pattern. I get that the OS displays the title above it, but nearly every other game has it in the icon. It's different for no apparent reason.
 

Neiteio

Member
I 100% understand how design matters and affects the system and OS.

But the thread title is literally "how a bad home menu icon drags down my enjoyment of a game".

And then you have posts like these:
Playing the system is part of playing the game. All part of the experience. And not just this game, but when I'm playing Zelda or Mario Kart, taking screenshots, and I hit the home button to check the gallery, I have to look at the ugly Snake Pass icon then, as well.

As someone who tabs in and out of the home menu frequently while playing all kinds of games, the Snake Pass icon routinely annoys me. And it doesn't need to be this way: The previous icon was perfectly fine.
 
Here's what I am getting from this. First party Switch icons feature titles, and there are no titles below the icons on Switch's welcome grid. Standard mobile menus inherited icon titles from desktop environments, under which simplified icons made certain amount of sense because they were very small and followed by a title. Switch Ui stretches them up, and the result is that people expect more from the icon, something closer to a box cover.

I don't know what does that mean in regards to Switch, but damn does that help me understand what irks me wrong about Wii U main menu. No universal icon titles (highlight only), simple iconography, and yet relatively high-res. 3DS at least got the whole title model thing.
 

Chorazin

Member
Playing the system is part of playing the game. All part of the experience. And not just this game, but when I'm playing Zelda or Mario Kart, taking screenshots, and I hit the home button to check the gallery, I have to look at the ugly Snake Pass icon then, as well.

As someone who tabs in and out of the home menu frequently while playing all kinds of games, the Snake Pass icon routinely annoys me. And it doesn't need to be this way: The previous icon was perfectly fine.

Wait. So not only is the Snake Pass icon dragging down your enjoyment of the game, but now the whole user experience of the system with it?
 

Neiteio

Member
Wait. So not only is the Snake Pass icon dragging down your enjoyment of the game, but now the whole user experience?
That was my point from the start. It was once an icon that everyone liked; now it's an icon that everyone hates. And every time I go to the home menu — which happens regularly, since I'm always taking screens while playing games, and tabbing over to check them — I have to look at it.

Now, in any other case, I'd just accept it and move on. But the key difference is, they already had a good icon for this game. It's not like they have to make a new one. They'd just have to change back to the old one. No extra work on their part. Just toggle it on for the next patch.

I really love their game. It's a great game. I'm hopeful they care enough about the fans to take into account this simple request. It's a small detail that goes a long ways.
 

bigmac996

Member
Very timely that this thread popped up. Was showing friends Arms last night, and on the home menu everyone commented on Snake Pass' awful mobile game-esque icon. It's pretty bad. Wasn't anything spectacular before, but at least it fit in with the rest.
 

Neiteio

Member
Very timely that this thread popped up. Was showing friends Arms last night, and on the home menu everyone commented on Snake Pass' awful mobile game-esque icon. It's pretty bad. Wasn't anything spectacular before, but at least it fit in with the rest.
Yeah, I first noticed the change while starting a "linked together" playthrough of Zelda at a friend's house. (Where we each play with one of the joycons, controlling Link together.)
 

maxcriden

Member
Yeah, I first noticed the change while starting a "linked together" playthrough of Zelda at a friend's house. (Where we each play with one of the joycons, controlling Link together.)

I was thinking about co-op like that recently in games. How is that going? I think IGN might've done a series like that. (I think it would make a very interesting thread if you want to do so.)
 

Neiteio

Member
I was thinking about co-op like that recently in games. How is that going? I think IGN might've done a series like that. (I think it would make a very interesting thread if you want to do so.)
Yeah, I got the idea from IGN. I want to make a thread about my experience with it at some point in the near future, but I don't want to cannibalize the current thread, lol.

But in a word, it's awesome!
 

TissueBox

Member
Well this didn't bother me at first lol but now it does.

Also, regarding that Exvius thumbnail.... why.... Square, whhyy..!!?? *washes brain*

Actually I think that upset me most coming out of this thread.
 

maxcriden

Member
Yeah, I got the idea from IGN. I want to make a thread about my experience with it at some point in the near future, but I don't want to cannibalize the current thread, lol.

But in a word, it's awesome!

Nice! Looking forward to reading it. Reminds me of boost mode (especially videos of high level play, and especially challenges) in NSMBU.
 

Neiteio

Member
Well this didn't bother me at first lol but now it does.

Also, regarding that Exvius thumbnail.... why.... Square, whhyy..!!?? *washes brain*

Actually I think that upset me most coming out of this thread.
Yeah, seeing what Square-Enix did, maybe I should just be thankful. Could be worse, lol.
 

Neiteio

Member
This is the most interesting part of the story for me. Why be so adamant? Even the NeoGAF re-post blog Nintendo Life picked this up.
This is frustrating in a similar vein to how Sony won't let me turn off the distracting/battery-draining lightbar on the DS4 (except for on PC), or how Mario Kart 7 inexplicably left out single-player Versus mode so I couldn't do a quick race with items against the CPUs.

Design choices that don't make any sense, and that I find maddening. :-O
 
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